I need/want to make some 5 pin XLR extension cables for a Sennheiser 418s. I'm planning on using Neutrik connectors (probably NC5MX and NC5FX, but open to other suggestions) but am having trouble deciding what cable to use. I have recently made my some 3 pin XLR cables using Mogami 2534 and guidance from posts here on TS, but in looking on the Mogami and Canare websites I am not finding an equivalent version of the quad/star quad cable for the 5 pin XLR. Does anybody have suggestions?

Thanks Jon! I didn't know about that availability of the fat boot; that's a great tip. Followup question, what is your opinion on connecting the connector shell to the cable shield/ground wire? I don't have an electronics background, but from my reading on the interweb it seems that there are a lot of various opinions on whether to connect neither, one, or both connector shells. The argument for one only seems to be that this can protect your equipment when connecting to other people equipment which may be wired incorrectly. I can buy this argument, but for taping where I will be connecting my mics to my recorder this does not really seem to apply. I guess I am leaning towards connecting both, but would love to hear what you (or others) have to say on the subject.

On the male end, again, pin 1 *should* be bonded to the chassis at the female pin 1 input to the device. If not, you can do so in the male connector if you like. It is becoming more common for modern gear to be properly wired, so I suspect it doesn't make much difference. It's easy enough to test on gear with a metal chassis: connect a shell to the input and see if there is continuity between the shell and the chassis. But on a plastic-body recorder, who knows really? Even a plastic-body XLR connector can have a grounding tab for the shell to mate with, but you can't measure that directly if the case itself is plastic--it can be internally shielded instead.

Of the plastic-body recorders I've used, the RF intrusion has led me to believe that they don't have good internal shielding, if any at all. Transformers for stadium lights threw some nasty RF into a couple of my recordings this past marching band season, and in the past I've had issues indoors with cell phone interference when I forgot to switch to airplane mode despite fully balanced runs throughout with cables made by our fine cable makers here. Or, could such RF intrusion occur if there is shielding but it is not bonded to pin 1? For one of the lighting transformer incidents, I was wishing for an audio bag lined with a Faraday cage!

I was actually a little surprised by the duffel bag, but there are actually a fair number of options for more sleeve type bags for hard drives, tablets, and laptops. They seem to be for forensic retrieval and chain of custody insurance so that 'the bad guys' cannot alter the contents of a wifi/bluetooth enabled device while it is in possession of the authorities.